copy and paste your notes IN ORDER of what they are on the exam review:
PART I: SHORT DEFINITIONS
DISEMBODIMENT/RE-EMBODIMENT - SAMAR
· Disembodiment - Re-embodiment
Cartesian dualism – enlightenment thinker – began to question – how we know what we know – named after Rene Descartes – couldn’t deny he has a mind – “I think, therefore I am” – from that he built more knowledge – he was able to determine that he has a mind and a body – separate entities, but they had a causal link. They work together.
Constant exposure to virtual realities in cyberspace is leading to a gradual entrenchment of a bizarre modern form of Cartesian dualism in which the body and the mind are viewed as separate entities. With cyberspace – mind and body are being viewed as separate entities. Manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects – conditions people to accept mind separate from the body.
“Disembodiment” Virtual reality devices are contributing to this – virtual reality worlds require separate devices – person is interacting with a make-believe world, a representational space – not real space – interacting with representing itself, not reality. This is true with computers and internet as well. WoW + call of duty – people interacting in a make believe world – others can join in, but everyone is interacting with representation itself. As virtual reality becomes more widespread, may future entrench disembodiment. Mind is going to be even more disembodied once the devices are taken away. Story about the Barrie child – Brandon – separation of body and the mind – Call of duty
· Re-embodiment – Marshal Mcluhan – engages people in face-to-face contact – as much as you want to text your friends all the time, you still want to see them physically. · Re-tribalization – as dig tech continue to advance idea of global com – people will want protection with tribe (human beings have always lived in groups – tribe is collective group people instinctively migrate) · Conflicts will be resolved through tribal values, not digital values · People like consistency in lives and that’s what the tribe gives us – smaller groups are more meaningful to lives than allegiance to larger picture.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija
Disembodiment (Danesi, p. 171)
- Virtual reality devices aid in this.
- Constant exposure to ‘virtual realities’ in cyberspace is leading to an entrenchment of a ‘dualism’, the view that the body and mind are separate entities.
- Computers allow users to move and react in a computer-simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
- Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separable from the mind
Re-embodiment (177)
- Even though people today see themselves as interconnected to world events (especially through TV and the Internet), they still have a strong desire to live in the ‘real’ world.
- Rather than take the mind out of the human body and transfer it to cyber systems or humanoid machines, the whole technology that under grids the Digital Galaxy will bring about integration of the body
- This process of re-embodiment is a result of what McLuhan called ‘re-tribalization' Re-Tribalization (related to Re-embodiment): - As digital technologies continue to advance the possibility of global communication ‘on the spot’, so to speak, people want the protection and emotional shelter of the ‘tribe’ more and more.
- This is because, like most other species, humans have always lived in groups.
- The tribe remains the type of collectivity to which human beings instinctively relate even in modern times.
- Re-tribalization involves re-embodiment, since it engages people in face-to-face contact.
- The more the computer is used to conduct everyday affairs, the more people seem to resort to traditional forms of discourse and interaction
- The paradox of everyday life in the Digital Galaxy is that it engenders both ‘globalism’ and ‘tribalism’ at once.
CONVERGENCE - KUROLIS
- advances in digital technology and in telecommunication networks have led to a convergence of all media into one overall mediated system of communications
- This has led to the emergence of new lifestyles and careers to the creation of new institutions and to radical paradigm shifts in all domains of social organizations
- Is the manifestation of digitization of all media technologies and the integrations of media into computer networks
- Ex. Telephone: iphone 3g (integrates phone, music, internet etc.)
- Ex. Print media: newspapers (printed and online versions)
- Ex. Film: additions of special effects and digital animation (Toy Story)
- Media convergence is the result of the development of computer technology. The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija
Convergence (14-15, 167, 170-1)
- Definition: the occurrence of two or more things coming together
- Television and print media are now fully integrated with websites so that audiences of such media can continue to engross themselves in the complementary websites that they provide.
- The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
- Computers can now be put on ttop of TV sets so that people can interface with the Internet as well as the new digital TV services.
- Personal data assistants (PDA), pocket-sized information devices that accept handwriting, keep people in contact with the Internet and other media as well.
ADVERTISING TEXTUALITY - SAVRAJ
- The construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products.
o Use of jinglesàbring out some aspect of product in a memorable way
o Use of certain music genresàemphasize lifestyle
o Creation of fictitious charactersàassign a visual portraiture to product
o Use famous personagesàendorse the product
o Create ads/commercialsàrepresent product’s signification system
- Examples of ads mentioned, Millers Beer and Versus cologne by Versace.
- Barthes referred to ambiguity of such ads as anchorage, defining it as the ability of certain ads to evoke various equally probable subtexts, each of which is anchored in a specific signification system.
"ba da da da da - I'm loving it" - McDonalds ad
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Can be defined as the construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products Examples:
- The use of jingles which typically bring out some aspect of the product in a memorable way
- The use of certain music genres to emphasize lifestyle: e.g. the use of jazz or classical music to convey a sense of superiority and high-class aspirations
- The creation of fictitious characters so as to assign a visual portraiture of the product (e.g., Speedy, Ronald McDonalds, Tony the Tiger).
- Creating ads and commercials to represent the product’s signification system in some specific way (e.g., through some visual depiction, through narrative, etc.).
GENDER TYPES - MOHAMMAD
- The pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child's upbrining - As children get older they learn about themselves, who they are and how they are supposed to act and what is appropriate for the gender specific behaviour
- Ex. Disney: there are gender representation in Disney animated classics that are based on popular fairytales
- They follow gender specific narratives that gender type characters in their films
o Ex. Heroes (Hercules) seen as strong, masculine, tall, handsome, brave § All ways wins, and gets the girl
gender is socially contrusted and sex is biologically constructed
o Ex. Snow White: female roles are often portrayed as domestic and beautiful. They have long legs, bright eyes long eyelashes, hourglass shape
- Disney uses these gender typing implications to shape gender stereotypes which are often naturalized into society,
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- The process of developing the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions associated with a particular gender.
- Erving Goffman’s Analytic Categories: Relative size: the tendency for men to be presented as larger or taller than women. Goffman also found exceptions to this tendency that ‘proved the rule’. For if the woman was larger in an advertisement, she was generally found to be of a higher social status. The feminine touch: the way that women, more often than men, lightly touched or ritually caressed objects (or themselves) in advertisements. In contrast, men were generally depicted as purposefully grasping objects. Function ranking: when men and women were portrayed in a collaborativeactivity, the male was usually cast in the role of executor of the task while the female was cast in a secondary or supporting role. When the woman executed a traditionally ‘feminine’ task (cleaning, cooking), the man accompanying her usually had no role at all. Again Goffman found exceptions that proved the rule: if a man was the executor of a traditionally feminine task, he was generally presented as ludicrous and child-like (‘not a real man’). The family: Goffman observed that family figures tended to be posed to illustrate a special mother–daughter bond on the one hand or a father–son bond on the other. The father–son relationship was generally represented as more spatially distant from the viewer and as more emotionally distant by means of the space between the participants, for example. The ritualization of subordination: the tendency for women to be presented in inferior positions and poses. Women were found to be more often pictured in spatially lower positions or recumbent on floors or beds. They were also more likely to be portrayed performing submissive or appeasement gestures such as head or body canting, bending one knee inward (‘bashful kneebend’), smiling, clowning and acting less seriously. There was also a tendency for women to be more often portrayed as being under the physical care and protection of a man. Thus women were portrayed holding onto a man’s arm at the elbow, having their hands held by men, or being protectively held by the shoulder. Licensed withdrawal: Goffman theorized that women in advertisements were symbolically being given the opportunity to withdraw from the scene around them because they were implicitly or explicitly under the care of a male protector who acted as a surrogate parent. This omnipresent protective presence allows the female participants the licence to withdraw psychologically or ‘tune out’ from the immediate environment. This withdrawal was often signaled by certain types of gaze. For example, females were more likely to be depicted as gazing in an undirected way into the middle distance or as preoccupied, say, by twisting a part of a man’s clothing. Other ways that withdrawal was signalled included retreating behind objects, covering the face to conceal an emotional reaction and snuggling into, or nuzzling, others.
MACHINISM - SIDRA
view that everything inanimate or animate has a spirit
3 different types of machines
cartesian-dont use symbols and lack awarness of themselves
craikian-that construct models of reality, but lack selfawarness
self reflective-construct models of reality and are aware of thier ability to construct such models
AI researchers believe that humans are able to creat models of thier mind and are also aware of it.
myths from babylon include inanimate matter being brought to life.
computers are extensions of our minds. ex. storage, processing.
in reality true intellegence has never been realised by machines
in a fundamental sense machinism is a product of metamorphical thinking-the mind equals a machine. contrarly tech is a product of that ingenuity
ex. bike is extension of leg.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- So called “intelligent machines”
- Science of artificial intelligence (“AI”)
- Cartesian machines that do not use symbols and lack awareness of themselves
- Craikian machines that construct models of reality, but lack self-awareness
- self-reflective machines that construct models of reality and are aware of their ability to construct such models.
RITUALIZATION OF SUBORDINATION - HATTEM
o One of Erving Goffman’s Analytic Categories
o Women are always portrayed as being subordinate to men.
o Men are often portrayed as the central figureof an ad, and are shown to be ‘larger’ than the woman.
o Men as a rule of etiquette are usually offering their position/seats
o Women are lower than men. This is shown when she is lying on a couch, bed, floor, etc, and usually with a bashful knee-bend.
o Sometimes Women are portrayed as less pure because of the way they are lying/posing.
o Angular position of women (lowering of the head, tilting the head [towards or away], women smiling more than men in ads)
o If the ad has sometime to do with cleaning/cooking, then the male is shown as lower, and the women is the larger/dominant figure
hugo boss example
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Stereotype of honor is lowering oneself physically in some way of prostration · Stereotype of unashamedness, or superiority is holding the body erect and the head high · The floor is considered a good place to put someone lower, also associated with dirrty, less pure etc. · Also an expression of sexual availability · Woman and children more in this position then men
- Elevation seems to be employed indirectly on our society · Higher physical places represent higher social place · Men are usually elevated above woman · Woman more so then men do a knee bend · Can be read as a forgoing of full effort to beprepared and on the ready in the current social situation · Although there is a distinction btw body cant and head cant, they both tend to have an acceptance of subordination, type of submissiveness · Smiles mean that we approve of what the other has said and we approve and appreciate what they are doing · There is automatically smiling, where a gaze is caught by its object, by an aggressor · A responding smile: implies that the respondent belongs to the speakers circle. · Woman tend to smile more and more expansively · Childlike · Men are displayed in formal business and informal gear and each individual is displayed in a different guise ---which they can identify with; as though wearing a skin and not a costume · Woman tend to have a different relationship with clothing and to the gestures worn within it · Depending on the category the choices tend to be very different · More costume like and therefore woman are seen as less seriously present in social situations then men---woman also spend more time on their appearance · Adults play games with children · Using pillows and throwing children…the fun stuff · Men play these games with woman · Mock assault is fun in a holiday scene rather then a work scene
ALPHA/BETA- TAZ
-(more about this in question 6 medium is the message- its up to u how u wana incorprate it into this definition) ·The brain is divided into left and right ·Right = Alpha (TV), passive, allows you to escape reality, not actively processing oafter 30 secs of watching TV the brain produces alpha waves oAssociated with unfocused overly passive states of motion oNeurologically, watching TV is like watching a blank wall ·Left = Beta (Reading) oHeightens performance oActively reading, making sense, and judging what you are reading oThe context in which we view the medium effects your brain waves oThe MEDIUM IS NOT NEUTRAL
This connects to Marshall McLuhan’s medium is the message.
ex. when u watch news-brain is in alpha state. when u read news-brain is in beta state.
Alpha/Beta · Right side of brain = Alpha state (TV) · Passive; we dont think much · The brain is in a rest mode-------watching t.v · Your eyes are usually not open, except for when watching t.v · Left side of brain = Beta state (Reading) · Active state; criticising and judging · Highly tuned and focused · Changes interpersonal dynamics · not just the content or use of the innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings with it.
VIRTUAL SIGNIFIERS - FADUMA
Virtual signified: Semiotically speaking, the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world's signifying orders, by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation and even reality. in cyberspace, signifieds float around with no material world in which to exist. They are virtual signifieds transmitted by a host of multimedia signifiers. What is emerging is a 'cybersystem' without the usual constraints that traditional print systems impose on representation and communication.
Baudillard said that digital media has put people in the position of having to rebuild signifying orders from the ashes of the 'dead signs' of the 'real' world. These new signs though, are not so different from the old ones. So it is predicted that in a short time virtual communication will replace real communication again as people realize that their bodies are as much part of creating signs as their minds. The computer will engender a desire to 're-embody' communication and representation.
Examples: emoticons later may turn into cultural signifieds
Short answer:
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- The convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders, by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality, and even reality.
- In cyberspace signified’s float around, so to speak, with no material world in which to exist.
o They are virtual signifieds transmitted by a host of multimedia signifiers.
- What is emerging is a ‘cybersystem’ without the usual constraints that traditional print systems impose on representation and communication.
- Baudrillard predicts in a short time ‘virtual communication’ will become ‘real communication’ again, as people begin to realize that their bodies are as much a part of creating signs as are their minds.
PART II: SHORT ANSWER
QUESTION 1: RAJ
Image, as defined by Baudrillard is: a representation of a product or service in order to enhance its value aesthetically, socially, etc.
(Textbook Pages 143-145)
1. Mythologizing effect
- Refers to the phenomenon that TV creates personages that are perceived as mythic figures, larger than life.
- Television creates mythic personages by simply ‘containing’ them in electronic space, where they are seen as suspended in real time and space, in a mythic world of their own. (for example - friends - we see them as what real people do - go to coffee house with friends, etc)
- TV personages are infused with a defied quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen inside the mythical electronic space created by television.
- Since TV reaches more people, the mythologizing effect in its case is more widespread.
2. The history fabrication effect
- Refers to the fact that TV literally fabricates history by inducing the impression in viewers that some ordinary event (an election campaign, an actor’s love affair) is a momentous happening.
- The events that are showcased on TV are felt as being more significant and historically meaningful to society that those that are not.
- TV has become the maker of history and its documenter at the same time.
- People now experience history through TV, not just in a book or at school.
- The history making power of TV has led many to actually stage an historical event for the cameras.
o Anderson calls these ‘pseudoevents’ (they are never spontaneous, planned for the sole purpose of playing to TVs audience)
- Psuedoevents constitute unscripted reality TV at its best, they mesh reality with acting, dream, and social commentary.
- Anderson: “Media take the raw material of experience and fashion it into stories; they retell the stories to us, and we call them reality.”
Obama - he's just another president, but he is the first black President - tv made him big - "experiencing history in the making"
Iraq war - watching flashes of bombs and sensational images that is "history in the making"
3. The cognitive compression effect.
- Refers to the fact that the TV medium presents its stories, info, and features in compacted form for time-constrained transmission.
- Viewers have little time to reflect on topics, implications and meanings contained in its messages.
- TV has habituated people to large doses of meaning suspended info, cut up, packaged and digested beforehand.
- TV news programs present an immense amount of info but they have been edited before being viewed for effortless mass consumption.
- The device that intensified the cognitive compression effect is the remote control.
o Invented in 1956 by Robert Adler
o 1980s became a standard prop with every television
o Had an enormous impact on how we view television
o When bored with one channel, viewer can flip to another from their own seat.
War on terror - Afghanistan and Iraq - explosions - flash from one scene to another - you don't get the whole story -just snippets of it - something that took place within days or weeks is presented within a few hours.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
Mythologizing Effects · Difference between everyday myths and modern day · I.e Father knows best v.s married with children----mytholigizing fathers · Men as morons The history fabrication effect · We fabricate history by making something huge and monumental---Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt · We learn peoples roles---Brad Pitt = bad guy b/cuz he left Jenn for Angie · Death of Princess Diana · Event was repeatedly shown on t.v, · A death got so much attention, this is why terrorists always want to be on television - to get their msg across · People experience the history through t.v · Pseudo events orchestrated in a way we felt like we were victorious · Gulf War · Meshed reality · Everything was planned as to what can be seen · We did not see the event, we saw the sanitized version of the event · All we saw was the lights and noise · We were not shown the graphics · It was a meshed reality of the fact that people were dying you felt like you were there, like you were witnessing history The cognitive compression effect · T.v news stories · Little compressed items of news which is shot and angled at a certain angle · Depending on what they want to show, they only show a certain part of it · Subject to style and stylizing of that particular story · Stories are divided into sections: · I.e good guy, bad guy, lucky guy · Sorts the news beliefs, religions, countries etc. · *We just take it, digest It, and don’t have time to reflect on it · t.v images do the thinking for you
QUESTION 2: SAMAR & SIDRA
John Fiske has three levels of coded meaing. He has also stated that television codes are already embedded in ideological codes. we already know what to expect when we watch TV. everyone looks and acts a certain to portray something. ex. a hero is pretty and a villain isnt. we know before hand how things work because society has created theses sterotypes that have been imbeded in us since forever.
John Fiske has three levels · Television make and circulate meanings that serve the dominant interests of society
Level One: Reality
o Appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc.
everything is coded: ex. a banker usually wears a suit – encoded at the technical level
Level Two: Representation
o camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc
The actual representation, camera man may be limited to framing a scene a certain way. Norm is the zoom into the top half of body, if shot is extremely close there are only certain scenes, generally used to represent villain – when close up shot – it is generally in a hostile environment b/c invading their space. It can also be an intimate scene.
Done in editing – good guys are given more time and more shots than the villain does. connect with good guy and viewer
Encodings of ideologies – Joey from friends is the “dumb guy”
Technical code of casting
Level Three: Ideology
o All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism
make sense of what you are seeing
Put technical and social together to come up with ideology to make sense of all of it as a culture at large
Has to be socially acceptable
Capitalism, patriarchy, race, etc
Harder to identify – criticism – woman is seen as dumb and man smarter – encoding patriarchy
Crime – theft of personal property – encoding capitalism
Constitute common sense to a society
The viewer accepts these codes because: · they are embedded into acceptable norms in society · villains are portrayed in a certain way which is accepted by everyone
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Fiske argues that certain codes work more explicitly then others · Their ideological work is to naturalize the correlation of low class non-Americans with the less attractive, less moral and therefore more villainous. · T.v produces culture · When we see something we perceive it that way According to Fiske: Level One: Reality: · appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc. · codes you will easily decode · you are already making assumptions · encoded at the technical level Level Two: Representation: · camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc. · camera man may be limited as to how he show shoot the image and at what angle · lighting----villian----bad guy · social code of interpretative space · close up= intimate or evil · editing: good guys are given more time on camera and practice on t.v · characters are encoded with meaning · i.e joey=silly pheby=dumb blonde · viewers are clear about the characteristics of a good guy v.s a bad guy · hero = more attractive · attractiveness depends on the coding of the representation · helps shape the narrative , plot and setting Level Three: Ideology: · All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism · Helps u make sense · Technical codes produce the myth= come up with the ideology · Has to be socially acceptable · Crime as theft of personal property · That’s my stuff, I payed for it · Violance used by good guy is acceptable and he is more likely to be successful
QUESTION 3: KUROLIS
The late 1980 saw a revolution in the way people perceived movies, with major releases being made available for home video
This development seemed to threaten the long term survival of movie theatres and created a climate of uneasiness in movie studios throughout the world, when TV began to challenge the hegemony of motion pictures.
As a result, film companies started increasingly favoring large spectacle movies with special effects which could not be viewed at home.
Going to cinema is still perceived as communal event, something that is to be shared with others. Being at a movie theatre is a social act – being on a date, social experience different atmosphere
• Polysemy
• Composite signifier- Dialogue, camera shot, dark room, large screen made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers.
• Active role of the viewer in creating meaning
• We interpret the codes
• Yet, we’re subject to the ideology and we’re just consumers
So despite the challenge from video cassettes and DVD, the traditional movie viewing is popular as ever.
It is more accurate to say that the cinematic text expands the categories of language by blending dialogues, music, scenery, and action in a cohesive way. For this reason, it can be characterized as a composite sign made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers.
This is why according to Metz (1974), they can be viewed as having the same structural features of language. Its composite nature is what makes cinematic representation powerful.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Viewers like to take the sign offered to them in a movie that is the text consisting of a chain of photographic images that create the illusion of real life motion and action and adapt this sign’s meaning to personal and social experience. This is known as the interpretant. · Active role of the viewer in creating meaning makes films exciting · People watch a film and create a connection to their own lives · We interpret the codes and even though we know that at the end the bad guy dies and the good guy lives, the ideologies the media has created makes us want for the movie to end in a certain way · All of this is the way we interpret the codes and the way they are encoded
QUESTION 4: HATTEM
Danesi argues that virtual words entrench our minds to conceive them as real, thereby separating mind and body.
The mind is in the virtual world while the body is in the real world
CHANGED
Disimbodiment is the modern form of Cartesian Duelism. Craikian is only for machines. Humans are capable of being self-aware, but when our brains are entrenched in a virtual world and stay in the physical then we are disembodied.
Cartesian 'dualism' is the view that the body and the mind are separate entities.
Named after Rene Descartes who argued “I think, therefore I am”
This meant that even if we exist in a virtual world, the fact that we ‘think’ we are in a world proves that we have a mind, and that we physically exist somewhere.
Although the body and mind are separate entities, they work
Through constant engagement in such environments, one perceives that the virual models constructed are the true physical self.
This condition’s people more and more to perceive the body as separable from the mind.
Cyberspace allows users to move and react in a computer-simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
This creates a disembodiment process since virtual words require interface devices that transmit sights, sounds and sensations of the simulated world to the user.
We begin to believe that the simulated world is the real world, therefore separating us even more in mind and body, further proving Cartesian ‘dualism’.
An example of this would be of Brandon, the kid from Barrie who ran away from home when his Xbox was taken away. The child spent so much time on the game Call of Duty 4 that he believed it to be real – a separation of mind and body.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Cartesian Dualism:
o Descartes famous saying, “I reflect, therefore I am”
o Descartes held that the immaterial mind and the material body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other.
o He reasoned that the body could be divided up by removing a leg or arm, but to mind or souls were indivisible.
o The central claim is that the immaterial mind and the material body, while being ontologically distinct substances, causally interact. - Constant exposure to ‘virtual realities’ in cyberspace is leading to an entrenchment of a ‘dualism’, the view that the body and mind are separate entities.
- Computers allow users to move and react in a computer-simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
- Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separable from the mind.
Example:
- The kid who ran away because his XBOX was taking away
- He spent so much time on the game that he felt his ranking in game was real
- His mind was so entrenched in the game that it was the only thing that matters.
QUESTION 5: FEDUMA
Why is birth of a nation racist? How does it naturalize racism?
In Griffith's Birth of a Nation, a pattern of portraying black's as inferior was established that would last for decades. While this film used techniques that made it a film classic, it also glorified the Ku Klux Klan. The film grossed $18 million and was denounced by the NAACP for its racist portrayal of blacks. "in its presentation of KKK as heroes and Southern blacks as villains, it appealed to white Americans due to its mythic view of the Old South, and its thematic exploration of two great American issues: interracial sex and the empowerment of blacks. Ironically, the film' s major black roles were filled with white actors-- in blackface. Birth of a Nation has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Ku Klux Klan. Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race, so what was all the fuss about?
Opening scene sets film up around issues of racism
Signifiers in the film use several different elements to convey meanings about race that are clearly to the accuser's benefit and at the victim's expense, that is, that African Americans themselves are to blame not only for slavery, but for the problem that slavery caused white people and this is something that is shown continuously in the film.
It naturalizes issues of racism. Makes them seem like common sense
Musical group public enemy challenges these naturalized common sense views of racism that hollywood portrays with "burn Baby Burn"
The black image on the commercial screen, principally Hollywood's ideology of racial domination and difference constructs black people as other and subordinate, while it naturalizes white privilege as the invisible but sovereign "norm'.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Shows African Americans in a negative way.
- Although the movie was said to be a portrayal of war and reconstruction, it was more a depiction of white superiority over blacks.
- It is naturalized because we feel that the movie ‘tells us’ the story, in much the same way that village storyteller’s once did. The impact is immediate and to the point.
- The film suggested that the KKK restored order to the post-war South
- Since these stories feel ‘real’, audiences believe it to be true in ‘real life’.
- We feel that by watching this film it is ‘normal’
QUESTION 6: TAZ
·Medium is the Message means mediums are not neutral, and neither are messages ·Breaking up of objects to even more parts ·They take apart an object and re-arrange the components ·Cubism is the most radical attempt to enforce ambiguity oCan’t let things slide oMakes you get involved oClassical paintings you sit back and look oBut cubism makes you look closely to try and understand oTry to take it apart in your brain and re-construct it oForces you to become instantly aware of the image by stating that the medium is the message. oThe style of cubism is actually forcing you to seize the msg through the canvasCubism – look at art in different perspectives – cubism –Picasso – comment on modern life and how we perceive the world – forced to look at it from all sorts of angles oPicasso ‘Ma Jolie’, 1911-1912, Cubism – putting different oMarshal McLuhan – cubism – stamp out ambiguity – forcing us to read and interpret art – make things ambiguous – “what is Picasso talking about?” – substitutes all facets of an object at the same time for point of view of perspective illusion omedium is cubism – have to get involved through cubism to understand it – plays the part in which we understand Talk about alpha beta state Right side of brain = Alpha state (TV) ospecial – receptive, not critical of information – passive – when we watch tv we go into an alpha state – measure actual alpha brain waves – allows you to escape reality – in alpha state brain is essentially on idle, in a rest mode – doesn’t act on incoming and sensory codes – we just take in information – not actively being processed oafter 30 seconds brain begins to produce alpha waves – almost comatose state owhen eyes are open – you’re not in an alpha state, however when watching tv you are. oneurologically analogous to staring at a blank wall. oLeft side of brain = Beta state (Reading) obrain is attentive and alert – highly tuned and highly focused – respond quickly in activity doing – brain neurons heighten performance owe experience TV news different then news from a newspaper – when reading news from news paper you are in a bata state – actively reading and making sense and criticizing what you are saying oall media is a certain kind of signifier – they encode or represent things in specific ways omedia uses coded meaning in representing – acura – tempora (Japanese) ending in vowel (Italian) §barthes – pop culture - huge distraction factory – aim – uproot traditional means of art §Bolldriard & barthes – blame media – pleasure is the goal of life and persue it through consumption §is economic rooted media telling us this is how we need to live (capitalistic) §denasi – media technology has allowed to democratization of art §denasi – juvenalization
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Alpha and beta state. Passive v. Active viewing
- Cubism: creates ambiguity. Try to figuring it out, but you can’t. Forces you to become instantly aware of the image.
o Forcing you to cease the message through the canvas.
o Makes you look at art in different perspectives
o
- A medium can be defined as the physical means by which some systems of ‘signs’ for recording ideas can be naturalized.
- The form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
- The medium through which a person encounters a particular piece of content would have an effect on the individual’s understanding of it.
- McLuhan hypothesized that specific content might have little effect on society.
o For example, it does not matter if television broadcasts children’s shows or violent programming – the effect of television on society would be identical and profound.
o The message of a newscast about a heinous crime may be less about the individual news story itself—the content—and more about the change in public attitude towards crime that the newscast engenders by the fact that such crimes are in effect being brought into the home to watch over dinner.
- People tend to focus on the obvious, which is the content, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time.
o As the society’s values, norms, and ways of doing things change because of the technology, it is then we realize the social implications of the medium.
PART III: ESSAY
QUESTION 1: MOHAMMAD
General information regarding TV (to write your intro): · Television can be characterized as a social text, that is, an overarching representamen that guides and informs the wider society on issues of current concern. · TV enforces already enforced myths, TV show needs to cater to large segment of population therefore adopt and recycle trends, myths and recycle them · by 1960 no longer random – shows, commercials, news, etc all put together to not look random and connected · TV syntax can be characterised as a social text – meta text – people are getting Information on everything simultaneously – ex. news, sports, public service notifications, discovery channel, entertainment, etc... · TV bring important social changes – Vietnam war – war low key until footage was brought into the US and put on TV – reality of war lead to huge protest and ultimately led to the end of the Vietnam war
· What about the images that TV produces? Image, as defined by Baudrillard is: a representation of a product or service in order to enhance its value aesthetically, socially, etc.
· Example: JFK vs. Nixon Debate, 1960. This confirmed what Baudrillard had been saying about the power of the visual image being supreme over any other type of signifier in media events.
The essay body:
How does television make and circulate meanings that serve the dominant interests of society?
According to Fiske: § Level One: Reality o Appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc. § everything is coded: ex. a banker usually wears a suit – encoded at the technical level § Relating Level One: Reality to racism and “Color Adjustment”: § Lazy black males or dumb black men. In Amos ‘n’ Andy, The black males continuously make fools out of themselves. They are all over the place, always make stupid/funny mistakes (beating each other or fighting over stupid arguments) and speak in a funny way. § In the show “Julia”, she was a nurse, who had a family and lived in an integrated environment. She felt as if she belonged there. White people would say that “Julia” can’t be black; she must be white with dark makeup because she was pretty. Julia’s husband was missing in the family – only her and her child § Miss. Beulah – house keeper – African American comfortable working in a white families home with no family or network of her own § 2 types of Black Americans were portrayed on the TV – the TV family (on the shows) and the news version of the ferocious and violent black people. § Level Two: Representation o camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc § The actual representation, camera man may be limited to framing a scene a certain way. Norm is the zoom into the top half of body, if shot is extremely close there are only certain scenes, generally used to represent villain – when close up shot – it is generally in a hostile environment b/c invading their space. It can also be an intimate scene. § Done in editing – good guys are given more time and more shots than the villain does. connect with good guy and viewer § encodings of ideologies – Joey from friends is the “dumb guy” § technical code of casting § Relating Level Two: Representation and “Color Adjustment”: - Goofy music when a black male is on stage. Funny dances
- The way King Cole (Black male Musician) was presented on TV didn’t seem threatening or forceful. It made the white people feel comfortable and less threatened. He was the focus of the show; the cameras were always on him
-in one of the scenes, a black family move into the neighbourhood. The white neighbour happens to be talking to her husband while peaking through the window at the black family. She starts worrying and calls out for her husband “chuck… chuck… we have new neighbours” while a dark thrilling song is played in the end.
§ Level Three: Ideology o All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism § make sense of what you are seeing § put technical and social together to come up with ideology to make sense of all of it as a culture at large § has to be socially acceptable § capitalism, patriarchy, race, etc § harder to identify – criticism – woman is seen as dumb and man smarter – encoding patriarchy § crime – theft of personal property – encoding capitalism § constitute common sense to a society
§ Relating Level Three: Ideology and “Color Adjustment”: o cliché – lazy black males or dumb black men
o Black people were always servants and dressed poorly on TV shows. This might cause people to think that the blacks are second class citizens.
o White people see Amos ‘n Andy on TV, and think the whole race is like that.
o Black people may strive for the American dream, but will always fail to achieve it.
o Shows which included black people started to increase towards the 80s, showing that racism is starting to decrease
o In “Good times” a black male father was finally introduced.
o In “The Cosby show” a positive image was being sent out about the black family. They were the type that would move into your community and not disturb you at all
o Some racism problems still persisted. In “good times”, one of the children still portrayed the old foolish and buffoon-like black man. In “Frank’s place” the real image of what the black people are going through was portrayed. It was hammered by the critics. They wanted the black actors to be funny and colourless. Since the TV industry felt like they were finally reaching a midpoint between racism and what was portrayed on TV, they did not want this show to bring and cause more controversy.
o “Roots” viewed white people as the villains, but it did not insult them. It attracted many viewers. It changed the slave era disgrace into an epic triumph of a black family that finds unity and happiness in the end. The truth was still not being portrayed properly on TV. It was trying to say that blacks have achieved the American dream… but did they really?
Gerbner’s studies in television:
§ Good guys vs. bad guys § Killer to killed ratio § Result: Hero’s are socially central types who embody the dominant ideology whereas villains are members of deviant or subordinate subcultures who embody the dominant ideology less completely or actually oppose to it
o codes of race and class work less openly
o If you get someone of a lower class – no white, less attractive, and present them as less moral (more villain) automatically seem them as somewhat of a lower status then themselves.
Extra notes that could be useful if needed: § Ideal image of American family was presented in the 50s – black people didn’t exist (occasionally a superstar would be a guest) § TV is a commercial industry and no sponsors would support black shows during the 50s-60s § Images of people during a civil rights movements started to show white people that black people should be feared § Black people may strive for the American dream, but will always fail to achieve it.
QUESTION 2: SIDRA & FADUMA
With reference to Goffman and Berger, discuss the representation of gender difference in advertising. How does advertising depict both men and women and place them within a social hierarchy? How does Goffman suggest that we “test” the reliability and strength of a particular gender stereotype?
Additional notes from Priya and Darija:
GOFFMAN
· “The task of the advertiser is to favorably dispose viewers to his product, his means , by and large, to show a sparkling version of the product in the context of glamorous events.” (pg 3, para 4/5) · “A classy young lady is likely to be in the picture, adding her approval of the product and herself to its ambience, whether the product be floor maps, insecticides etc…” (pg 3, para 5) · “The picture itself is designed to tell its little story without much textural assistance” (pg 3, para 6) RELATIVE SIZE---important last part · “In a social interaction between the sexes biological dimorphism underlies the probability that the males usual superiority of status over the female will be expressible in his greater girth and height (pg 28, para 2) Feminine touch · Woman used their hands as a way to outline “an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface” (pg 29, para 1) · “This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates or holds” (pg 29, para 1 Function Ranking · men are usually the more dominant and usually take that role in advertisements (pg. 33/34) Licensed Withdrawal · *ALL PARAGRAPH 1--- woman are removed psychologically from a situation therefore they depend on the protection of those around them * · “Turning one`s gaze away from another’s can be seen as having the consequence of withdrawing from the current thrust of communication” (pg 62, para 1) · more on this on page 63
height is reduced as well
QUESTION 3:
Cinema can be described as a signifying practice, a way of making meaning in which different codes interact in films or film genres in particular ways. Discuss this with reference to the films Birth of a Nation and Schindler’s List.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Schindler’s List:
o filmed in black and white
o ends in a positive uplifting note
o it satisfies two requirements: § a quest for authenticity, the story must have actually happened § the demand for a human story, one of determination, decency, courage and a final triumph of which in which good beats out evil
- Birth of a Nation
o 1915 blockbuster
o It has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Klu Klux Klan
o Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race, so what’s all the fuss about?
(PLEASE ADD MORE TO THIS!)
PART I: SHORT DEFINITIONS
DISEMBODIMENT/RE-EMBODIMENT - SAMAR
· Disembodiment - Re-embodiment· Re-embodiment – Marshal Mcluhan – engages people in face-to-face contact – as much as you want to text your friends all the time, you still want to see them physically.
· Re-tribalization – as dig tech continue to advance idea of global com – people will want protection with tribe (human beings have always lived in groups – tribe is collective group people instinctively migrate)
· Conflicts will be resolved through tribal values, not digital values
· People like consistency in lives and that’s what the tribe gives us – smaller groups are more meaningful to lives than allegiance to larger picture.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija
Disembodiment (Danesi, p. 171)- Virtual reality devices aid in this.
- Constant exposure to ‘virtual realities’ in cyberspace is leading to an entrenchment of a ‘dualism’, the view that the body and mind are separate entities.
- Computers allow users to move and react in a computer-simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
- Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separable from the mind
Re-embodiment (177)
- Even though people today see themselves as interconnected to world events (especially through TV and the Internet), they still have a strong desire to live in the ‘real’ world.
- Rather than take the mind out of the human body and transfer it to cyber systems or humanoid machines, the whole technology that under grids the Digital Galaxy will bring about integration of the body
- This process of re-embodiment is a result of what McLuhan called ‘re-tribalization'
Re-Tribalization (related to Re-embodiment):
- As digital technologies continue to advance the possibility of global communication ‘on the spot’, so to speak, people want the protection and emotional shelter of the ‘tribe’ more and more.
- This is because, like most other species, humans have always lived in groups.
- The tribe remains the type of collectivity to which human beings instinctively relate even in modern times.
- Re-tribalization involves re-embodiment, since it engages people in face-to-face contact.
- The more the computer is used to conduct everyday affairs, the more people seem to resort to traditional forms of discourse and interaction
- The paradox of everyday life in the Digital Galaxy is that it engenders both ‘globalism’ and ‘tribalism’ at once.
CONVERGENCE - KUROLIS
- advances in digital technology and in telecommunication networks have led to a convergence of all media into one overall mediated system of communications
- This has led to the emergence of new lifestyles and careers to the creation of new institutions and to radical paradigm shifts in all domains of social organizations
- Is the manifestation of digitization of all media technologies and the integrations of media into computer networks
- Ex. Telephone: iphone 3g (integrates phone, music, internet etc.)
- Ex. Print media: newspapers (printed and online versions)
- Ex. Film: additions of special effects and digital animation (Toy Story)
- Media convergence is the result of the development of computer technology.
The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija
Convergence (14-15, 167, 170-1)- Definition: the occurrence of two or more things coming together
- Television and print media are now fully integrated with websites so that audiences of such media can continue to engross themselves in the complementary websites that they provide.
- The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
- Computers can now be put on ttop of TV sets so that people can interface with the Internet as well as the new digital TV services.
- Personal data assistants (PDA), pocket-sized information devices that accept handwriting, keep people in contact with the Internet and other media as well.
ADVERTISING TEXTUALITY - SAVRAJ
- The construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products.o Use of jinglesàbring out some aspect of product in a memorable way
o Use of certain music genresàemphasize lifestyle
o Creation of fictitious charactersàassign a visual portraiture to product
o Use famous personagesàendorse the product
o Create ads/commercialsàrepresent product’s signification system
- Examples of ads mentioned, Millers Beer and Versus cologne by Versace.
- Barthes referred to ambiguity of such ads as anchorage, defining it as the ability of certain ads to evoke various equally probable subtexts, each of which is anchored in a specific signification system.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Can be defined as the construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products
Examples:
- The use of jingles which typically bring out some aspect of the product in a memorable way
- The use of certain music genres to emphasize lifestyle: e.g. the use of jazz or classical music to convey a sense of superiority and high-class aspirations
- The creation of fictitious characters so as to assign a visual portraiture of the product (e.g., Speedy, Ronald McDonalds, Tony the Tiger).
- Creating ads and commercials to represent the product’s signification system in some specific way (e.g., through some visual depiction, through narrative, etc.).
GENDER TYPES - MOHAMMAD
- The pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child's upbrining
- As children get older they learn about themselves, who they are and how they are supposed to act and what is appropriate for the gender specific behaviour
- Ex. Disney: there are gender representation in Disney animated classics that are based on popular fairytales
- They follow gender specific narratives that gender type characters in their films
o Ex. Heroes (Hercules) seen as strong, masculine, tall, handsome, brave
§ All ways wins, and gets the girl
o Ex. Snow White: female roles are often portrayed as domestic and beautiful. They have long legs, bright eyes long eyelashes, hourglass shape
- Disney uses these gender typing implications to shape gender stereotypes which are often naturalized into society,
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- The process of developing the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions associated with a particular gender.
- Erving Goffman’s Analytic Categories:
Relative size: the tendency for men to be presented as larger or taller than women. Goffman also found exceptions to this tendency that ‘proved the rule’. For if the woman was larger in an advertisement, she was generally found to be of a higher social status.
The feminine touch: the way that women, more often than men, lightly touched or ritually caressed objects (or themselves) in advertisements. In contrast, men were generally depicted as purposefully grasping objects.
Function ranking: when men and women were portrayed in a collaborativeactivity, the male was usually cast in the role of executor of the task while the female was cast in a secondary or supporting role. When the woman executed a traditionally ‘feminine’ task (cleaning, cooking), the man accompanying her usually had no role at all. Again Goffman found exceptions that proved the rule: if a man was the executor of a traditionally feminine task, he was generally presented as ludicrous and child-like (‘not a real man’).
The family: Goffman observed that family figures tended to be posed to illustrate a special mother–daughter bond on the one hand or a father–son bond on the other. The father–son relationship was generally represented as more spatially distant from the viewer and as more emotionally distant by means of the space between the participants, for example.
The ritualization of subordination: the tendency for women to be presented in inferior positions and poses. Women were found to be more often pictured in spatially lower positions or recumbent on floors or beds. They were also more likely to be portrayed performing submissive or appeasement gestures such as head or body canting, bending one knee inward (‘bashful kneebend’), smiling, clowning and acting less seriously. There was also a tendency for women to be more often portrayed as being under the physical care and protection of a man. Thus women were portrayed holding onto a man’s arm at the elbow, having their hands held by men, or being protectively held by the shoulder.
Licensed withdrawal: Goffman theorized that women in advertisements were symbolically being given the opportunity to withdraw from the scene around them because they were implicitly or explicitly under the care of a male protector who acted as a surrogate parent. This omnipresent protective presence allows the female participants the licence to withdraw psychologically or ‘tune out’ from the immediate environment. This withdrawal was often signaled by certain types of gaze. For example, females were more likely to be depicted as gazing in an undirected way into the middle distance or as preoccupied, say, by twisting a part of a man’s clothing. Other ways that withdrawal was signalled included retreating behind objects, covering the face to conceal an emotional reaction and snuggling into, or nuzzling, others.
MACHINISM - SIDRA
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- So called “intelligent machines”- Science of artificial intelligence (“AI”)
- Cartesian machines that do not use symbols and lack awareness of themselves
- Craikian machines that construct models of reality, but lack self-awareness
- self-reflective machines that construct models of reality and are aware of their ability to construct such models.
RITUALIZATION OF SUBORDINATION - HATTE M
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Stereotype of honor is lowering oneself physically in some way of prostration· Stereotype of unashamedness, or superiority is holding the body erect and the head high
· The floor is considered a good place to put someone lower, also associated with dirrty, less pure etc.
· Also an expression of sexual availability
· Woman and children more in this position then men
- Elevation seems to be employed indirectly on our society
· Higher physical places represent higher social place
· Men are usually elevated above woman
· Woman more so then men do a knee bend
· Can be read as a forgoing of full effort to beprepared and on the ready in the current social situation
· Although there is a distinction btw body cant and head cant, they both tend to have an acceptance of subordination, type of submissiveness
· Smiles mean that we approve of what the other has said and we approve and appreciate what they are doing
· There is automatically smiling, where a gaze is caught by its object, by an aggressor
· A responding smile: implies that the respondent belongs to the speakers circle.
· Woman tend to smile more and more expansively
· Childlike
· Men are displayed in formal business and informal gear and each individual is displayed in a different guise ---which they can identify with; as though wearing a skin and not a costume
· Woman tend to have a different relationship with clothing and to the gestures worn within it
· Depending on the category the choices tend to be very different
· More costume like and therefore woman are seen as less seriously present in social situations then men---woman also spend more time on their appearance
· Adults play games with children
· Using pillows and throwing children…the fun stuff
· Men play these games with woman
· Mock assault is fun in a holiday scene rather then a work scene
ALPHA/BETA- TAZ
-(more about this in question 6 medium is the message- its up to u how u wana incorprate it into this definition)· The brain is divided into left and right
· Right = Alpha (TV), passive, allows you to escape reality, not actively processing
o after 30 secs of watching TV the brain produces alpha waves
o Associated with unfocused overly passive states of motion
o Neurologically, watching TV is like watching a blank wall
· Left = Beta (Reading)
o Heightens performance
o Actively reading, making sense, and judging what you are reading
o The context in which we view the medium effects your brain waves
o The MEDIUM IS NOT NEUTRAL
This connects to Marshall McLuhan’s medium is the message.
Alpha/Beta
· Right side of brain = Alpha state (TV)
· Passive; we dont think much
· The brain is in a rest mode-------watching t.v
· Your eyes are usually not open, except for when watching t.v
· Left side of brain = Beta state (Reading)
· Active state; criticising and judging
· Highly tuned and focused
· Changes interpersonal dynamics
· not just the content or use of the innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings with it.
VIRTUAL SIGNIFIERS - FADUMA
Virtual signified: Semiotically speaking, the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world's signifying orders, by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation and even reality. in cyberspace, signifieds float around with no material world in which to exist. They are virtual signifieds transmitted by a host of multimedia signifiers. What is emerging is a 'cybersystem' without the usual constraints that traditional print systems impose on representation and communication.
Baudillard said that digital media has put people in the position of having to rebuild signifying orders from the ashes of the 'dead signs' of the 'real' world. These new signs though, are not so different from the old ones. So it is predicted that in a short time virtual communication will replace real communication again as people realize that their bodies are as much part of creating signs as their minds. The computer will engender a desire to 're-embody' communication and representation.
Examples: emoticons later may turn into cultural signifieds
Short answer:
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- The convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders, by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality, and even reality.- In cyberspace signified’s float around, so to speak, with no material world in which to exist.
o They are virtual signifieds transmitted by a host of multimedia signifiers.
- What is emerging is a ‘cybersystem’ without the usual constraints that traditional print systems impose on representation and communication.
- Baudrillard predicts in a short time ‘virtual communication’ will become ‘real communication’ again, as people begin to realize that their bodies are as much a part of creating signs as are their minds.
PART II: SHORT ANSWER
QUESTION 1: RAJ
Image, as defined by Baudrillard is: a representation of a product or service in order to enhance its value aesthetically, socially, etc.
(Textbook Pages 143-145)
1. Mythologizing effect
- Refers to the phenomenon that TV creates personages that are perceived as mythic figures, larger than life.
- Television creates mythic personages by simply ‘containing’ them in electronic space, where they are seen as suspended in real time and space, in a mythic world of their own. (for example - friends - we see them as what real people do - go to coffee house with friends, etc)
- TV personages are infused with a defied quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen inside the mythical electronic space created by television.
- Since TV reaches more people, the mythologizing effect in its case is more widespread.
2. The history fabrication effect
- Refers to the fact that TV literally fabricates history by inducing the impression in viewers that some ordinary event (an election campaign, an actor’s love affair) is a momentous happening.
- The events that are showcased on TV are felt as being more significant and historically meaningful to society that those that are not.
- TV has become the maker of history and its documenter at the same time.
- People now experience history through TV, not just in a book or at school.
- The history making power of TV has led many to actually stage an historical event for the cameras.
o Anderson calls these ‘pseudoevents’ (they are never spontaneous, planned for the sole purpose of playing to TVs audience)
- Psuedoevents constitute unscripted reality TV at its best, they mesh reality with acting, dream, and social commentary.
- Anderson: “Media take the raw material of experience and fashion it into stories; they retell the stories to us, and we call them reality.”
3. The cognitive compression effect.
- Refers to the fact that the TV medium presents its stories, info, and features in compacted form for time-constrained transmission.
- Viewers have little time to reflect on topics, implications and meanings contained in its messages.
- TV has habituated people to large doses of meaning suspended info, cut up, packaged and digested beforehand.
- TV news programs present an immense amount of info but they have been edited before being viewed for effortless mass consumption.
- The device that intensified the cognitive compression effect is the remote control.
o Invented in 1956 by Robert Adler
o 1980s became a standard prop with every television
o Had an enormous impact on how we view television
o When bored with one channel, viewer can flip to another from their own seat.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
Mythologizing Effects
· Difference between everyday myths and modern day
· I.e Father knows best v.s married with children----mytholigizing fathers
· Men as morons
The history fabrication effect
· We fabricate history by making something huge and monumental---Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt
· We learn peoples roles---Brad Pitt = bad guy b/cuz he left Jenn for Angie
· Death of Princess Diana
· Event was repeatedly shown on t.v,
· A death got so much attention, this is why terrorists always want to be on television - to get their msg across
· People experience the history through t.v
· Pseudo events orchestrated in a way we felt like we were victorious
· Gulf War
· Meshed reality
· Everything was planned as to what can be seen
· We did not see the event, we saw the sanitized version of the event
· All we saw was the lights and noise
· We were not shown the graphics
· It was a meshed reality of the fact that people were dying
you felt like you were there, like you were witnessing history
The cognitive compression effect
· T.v news stories
· Little compressed items of news which is shot and angled at a certain angle
· Depending on what they want to show, they only show a certain part of it
· Subject to style and stylizing of that particular story
· Stories are divided into sections:
· I.e good guy, bad guy, lucky guy
· Sorts the news beliefs, religions, countries etc.
· *We just take it, digest It, and don’t have time to reflect on it
· t.v images do the thinking for you
QUESTION 2: SAMAR & SIDRA
John Fiske has three levels of coded meaing. He has also stated that television codes are already embedded in ideological codes. we already know what to expect when we watch TV. everyone looks and acts a certain to portray something. ex. a hero is pretty and a villain isnt. we know before hand how things work because society has created theses sterotypes that have been imbeded in us since forever.
John Fiske has three levels
· Television make and circulate meanings that serve the dominant interests of society
Level One: Reality
o Appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc.
- everything is coded: ex. a banker usually wears a suit – encoded at the technical level
Level Two: Representationo camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc
- The actual representation, camera man may be limited to framing a scene a certain way. Norm is the zoom into the top half of body, if shot is extremely close there are only certain scenes, generally used to represent villain – when close up shot – it is generally in a hostile environment b/c invading their space. It can also be an intimate scene.
- Done in editing – good guys are given more time and more shots than the villain does. connect with good guy and viewer
- Encodings of ideologies – Joey from friends is the “dumb guy”
- Technical code of casting
Level Three: Ideologyo All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism
The viewer accepts these codes because:
· they are embedded into acceptable norms in society
· villains are portrayed in a certain way which is accepted by everyone
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Fiske argues that certain codes work more explicitly then others
· Their ideological work is to naturalize the correlation of low class non-Americans with the less attractive, less moral and therefore more villainous.
· T.v produces culture
· When we see something we perceive it that way
According to Fiske:
Level One: Reality:
· appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc.
· codes you will easily decode
· you are already making assumptions
· encoded at the technical level
Level Two: Representation:
· camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc.
· camera man may be limited as to how he show shoot the image and at what angle
· lighting----villian----bad guy
· social code of interpretative space
· close up= intimate or evil
· editing: good guys are given more time on camera and practice on t.v
· characters are encoded with meaning
· i.e joey=silly pheby=dumb blonde
· viewers are clear about the characteristics of a good guy v.s a bad guy
· hero = more attractive
· attractiveness depends on the coding of the representation
· helps shape the narrative , plot and setting
Level Three: Ideology:
· All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism
· Helps u make sense
· Technical codes produce the myth= come up with the ideology
· Has to be socially acceptable
· Crime as theft of personal property
· That’s my stuff, I payed for it
· Violance used by good guy is acceptable and he is more likely to be successful
QUESTION 3: KUROLIS
The late 1980 saw a revolution in the way people perceived movies, with major releases being made available for home video
This development seemed to threaten the long term survival of movie theatres and created a climate of uneasiness in movie studios throughout the world, when TV began to challenge the hegemony of motion pictures.
As a result, film companies started increasingly favoring large spectacle movies with special effects which could not be viewed at home.
Going to cinema is still perceived as communal event, something that is to be shared with others. Being at a movie theatre is a social act – being on a date, social experience different atmosphere
• Polysemy
• Composite signifier- Dialogue, camera shot, dark room, large screen made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers.
• Active role of the viewer in creating meaning
• We interpret the codes
• Yet, we’re subject to the ideology and we’re just consumers
So despite the challenge from video cassettes and DVD, the traditional movie viewing is popular as ever.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
· Viewers like to take the sign offered to them in a movie that is the text consisting of a chain of photographic images that create the illusion of real life motion and action and adapt this sign’s meaning to personal and social experience. This is known as the interpretant.· Active role of the viewer in creating meaning makes films exciting
· People watch a film and create a connection to their own lives
· We interpret the codes and even though we know that at the end the bad guy dies and the good guy lives, the ideologies the media has created makes us want for the movie to end in a certain way
· All of this is the way we interpret the codes and the way they are encoded
QUESTION 4: HATTEM
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Cartesian Dualism:
o Descartes famous saying, “I reflect, therefore I am”
o Descartes held that the immaterial mind and the material body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other.
o He reasoned that the body could be divided up by removing a leg or arm, but to mind or souls were indivisible.
o The central claim is that the immaterial mind and the material body, while being ontologically distinct substances, causally interact.
- Constant exposure to ‘virtual realities’ in cyberspace is leading to an entrenchment of a ‘dualism’, the view that the body and mind are separate entities.
- Computers allow users to move and react in a computer-simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
- Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separable from the mind.
Example:
- The kid who ran away because his XBOX was taking away
- He spent so much time on the game that he felt his ranking in game was real
- His mind was so entrenched in the game that it was the only thing that matters.
QUESTION 5: FEDUMA
- Why is birth of a nation racist? How does it naturalize racism?
- In Griffith's Birth of a Nation, a pattern of portraying black's as inferior was established that would last for decades. While this film used techniques that made it a film classic, it also glorified the Ku Klux Klan. The film grossed $18 million and was denounced by the NAACP for its racist portrayal of blacks. "in its presentation of KKK as heroes and Southern blacks as villains, it appealed to white Americans due to its mythic view of the Old South, and its thematic exploration of two great American issues: interracial sex and the empowerment of blacks. Ironically, the film' s major black roles were filled with white actors-- in blackface. Birth of a Nation has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Ku Klux Klan. Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race, so what was all the fuss about?
Opening scene sets film up around issues of racismSignifiers in the film use several different elements to convey meanings about race that are clearly to the accuser's benefit and at the victim's expense, that is, that African Americans themselves are to blame not only for slavery, but for the problem that slavery caused white people and this is something that is shown continuously in the film.
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Shows African Americans in a negative way.- Although the movie was said to be a portrayal of war and reconstruction, it was more a depiction of white superiority over blacks.
- It is naturalized because we feel that the movie ‘tells us’ the story, in much the same way that village storyteller’s once did. The impact is immediate and to the point.
- The film suggested that the KKK restored order to the post-war South
- Since these stories feel ‘real’, audiences believe it to be true in ‘real life’.
- We feel that by watching this film it is ‘normal’
QUESTION 6: TAZ
· Medium is the Message means mediums are not neutral, and neither are messages· Breaking up of objects to even more parts
· They take apart an object and re-arrange the components
· Cubism is the most radical attempt to enforce ambiguity
o Can’t let things slide
o Makes you get involved
o Classical paintings you sit back and look
o But cubism makes you look closely to try and understand
o Try to take it apart in your brain and re-construct it
o Forces you to become instantly aware of the image by stating that the medium is the message.
o The style of cubism is actually forcing you to seize the msg through the canvasCubism – look at art in different perspectives – cubism –Picasso – comment on modern life and how we perceive the world – forced to look at it from all sorts of angles
o Picasso ‘Ma Jolie’, 1911-1912, Cubism – putting different
o Marshal McLuhan – cubism – stamp out ambiguity – forcing us to read and interpret art – make things ambiguous – “what is Picasso talking about?” – substitutes all facets of an object at the same time for point of view of perspective illusion
o medium is cubism – have to get involved through cubism to understand it – plays the part in which we understand
Talk about alpha beta state
Right side of brain = Alpha state (TV)
o special – receptive, not critical of information – passive – when we watch tv we go into an alpha state – measure actual alpha brain waves – allows you to escape reality – in alpha state brain is essentially on idle, in a rest mode – doesn’t act on incoming and sensory codes – we just take in information – not actively being processed
o after 30 seconds brain begins to produce alpha waves – almost comatose state
o when eyes are open – you’re not in an alpha state, however when watching tv you are.
o neurologically analogous to staring at a blank wall.
o Left side of brain = Beta state (Reading)
o brain is attentive and alert – highly tuned and highly focused – respond quickly in activity doing – brain neurons heighten performance
o we experience TV news different then news from a newspaper – when reading news from news paper you are in a bata state – actively reading and making sense and criticizing what you are saying
o all media is a certain kind of signifier – they encode or represent things in specific ways
o media uses coded meaning in representing – acura – tempora (Japanese) ending in vowel (Italian)
§ barthes – pop culture - huge distraction factory – aim – uproot traditional means of art
§ Bolldriard & barthes – blame media – pleasure is the goal of life and persue it through consumption
§ is economic rooted media telling us this is how we need to live (capitalistic)
§ denasi – media technology has allowed to democratization of art
§ denasi – juvenalization
Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Alpha and beta state. Passive v. Active viewing
- Cubism: creates ambiguity. Try to figuring it out, but you can’t. Forces you to become instantly aware of the image.
o Forcing you to cease the message through the canvas.
o Makes you look at art in different perspectives
o
- A medium can be defined as the physical means by which some systems of ‘signs’ for recording ideas can be naturalized.
- The form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
- The medium through which a person encounters a particular piece of content would have an effect on the individual’s understanding of it.
- McLuhan hypothesized that specific content might have little effect on society.
o For example, it does not matter if television broadcasts children’s shows or violent programming – the effect of television on society would be identical and profound.
o The message of a newscast about a heinous crime may be less about the individual news story itself—the content—and more about the change in public attitude towards crime that the newscast engenders by the fact that such crimes are in effect being brought into the home to watch over dinner.
- People tend to focus on the obvious, which is the content, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time.
o As the society’s values, norms, and ways of doing things change because of the technology, it is then we realize the social implications of the medium.
PART III: ESSAY
QUESTION 1: MOHAMMAD
General information regarding TV (to write your intro):
· Television can be characterized as a social text, that is, an overarching representamen that guides and informs the wider society on issues of current concern.
· TV enforces already enforced myths, TV show needs to cater to large segment of population therefore adopt and recycle trends, myths and recycle them
· by 1960 no longer random – shows, commercials, news, etc all put together to not look random and connected
· TV syntax can be characterised as a social text – meta text – people are getting Information on everything simultaneously – ex. news, sports, public service notifications, discovery channel, entertainment, etc...
· TV bring important social changes – Vietnam war – war low key until footage was brought into the US and put on TV – reality of war lead to huge protest and ultimately led to the end of the Vietnam war
· What about the images that TV produces? Image, as defined by Baudrillard is: a representation of a product or service in order to enhance its value aesthetically, socially, etc.
· Example: JFK vs. Nixon Debate, 1960. This confirmed what Baudrillard had been saying about the power of the visual image being supreme over any other type of signifier in media events.
The essay body:
How does television make and circulate meanings that serve the dominant interests of society?
According to Fiske:
§ Level One: Reality
o Appearance, dress, colour, make up, speech, behaviour, sound, etc.
§ everything is coded: ex. a banker usually wears a suit – encoded at the technical level
§ Relating Level One: Reality to racism and “Color Adjustment”:
§ Lazy black males or dumb black men. In Amos ‘n’ Andy, The black males continuously make fools out of themselves. They are all over the place, always make stupid/funny mistakes (beating each other or fighting over stupid arguments) and speak in a funny way.
§ In the show “Julia”, she was a nurse, who had a family and lived in an integrated environment. She felt as if she belonged there. White people would say that “Julia” can’t be black; she must be white with dark makeup because she was pretty. Julia’s husband was missing in the family – only her and her child
§ Miss. Beulah – house keeper – African American comfortable working in a white families home with no family or network of her own
§ 2 types of Black Americans were portrayed on the TV – the TV family (on the shows) and the news version of the ferocious and violent black people.
§ Level Two: Representation
o camera, lighting, editing, music, sound, etc
§ The actual representation, camera man may be limited to framing a scene a certain way. Norm is the zoom into the top half of body, if shot is extremely close there are only certain scenes, generally used to represent villain – when close up shot – it is generally in a hostile environment b/c invading their space. It can also be an intimate scene.
§ Done in editing – good guys are given more time and more shots than the villain does. connect with good guy and viewer
§ encodings of ideologies – Joey from friends is the “dumb guy”
§ technical code of casting
§ Relating Level Two: Representation and “Color Adjustment”:
- Goofy music when a black male is on stage. Funny dances
- The way King Cole (Black male Musician) was presented on TV didn’t seem threatening or forceful. It made the white people feel comfortable and less threatened. He was the focus of the show; the cameras were always on him
-in one of the scenes, a black family move into the neighbourhood. The white neighbour happens to be talking to her husband while peaking through the window at the black family. She starts worrying and calls out for her husband “chuck… chuck… we have new neighbours” while a dark thrilling song is played in the end.
§ Level Three: Ideology
o All of these are organized into coherence and social acceptability at this next level of ideological codes, such as: individualism, patriarchy, race, materialism, capitalism
§ make sense of what you are seeing
§ put technical and social together to come up with ideology to make sense of all of it as a culture at large
§ has to be socially acceptable
§ capitalism, patriarchy, race, etc
§ harder to identify – criticism – woman is seen as dumb and man smarter – encoding patriarchy
§ crime – theft of personal property – encoding capitalism
§ constitute common sense to a society
§ Relating Level Three: Ideology and “Color Adjustment”:
o cliché – lazy black males or dumb black men
o Black people were always servants and dressed poorly on TV shows. This might cause people to think that the blacks are second class citizens.
o White people see Amos ‘n Andy on TV, and think the whole race is like that.
o Black people may strive for the American dream, but will always fail to achieve it.
o Shows which included black people started to increase towards the 80s, showing that racism is starting to decrease
o In “Good times” a black male father was finally introduced.
o In “The Cosby show” a positive image was being sent out about the black family. They were the type that would move into your community and not disturb you at all
o Some racism problems still persisted. In “good times”, one of the children still portrayed the old foolish and buffoon-like black man. In “Frank’s place” the real image of what the black people are going through was portrayed. It was hammered by the critics. They wanted the black actors to be funny and colourless. Since the TV industry felt like they were finally reaching a midpoint between racism and what was portrayed on TV, they did not want this show to bring and cause more controversy.
o “Roots” viewed white people as the villains, but it did not insult them. It attracted many viewers. It changed the slave era disgrace into an epic triumph of a black family that finds unity and happiness in the end. The truth was still not being portrayed properly on TV. It was trying to say that blacks have achieved the American dream… but did they really?
Gerbner’s studies in television:
§ Good guys vs. bad guys
§ Killer to killed ratio
§ Result: Hero’s are socially central types who embody the dominant ideology whereas villains are members of deviant or subordinate subcultures who embody the dominant ideology less completely or actually oppose to it
o codes of race and class work less openly
o If you get someone of a lower class – no white, less attractive, and present them as less moral (more villain) automatically seem them as somewhat of a lower status then themselves.
Extra notes that could be useful if needed:
§ Ideal image of American family was presented in the 50s – black people didn’t exist (occasionally a superstar would be a guest)
§ TV is a commercial industry and no sponsors would support black shows during the 50s-60s
§ Images of people during a civil rights movements started to show white people that black people should be feared
§ Black people may strive for the American dream, but will always fail to achieve it.
QUESTION 2: SIDRA & FADUMA
With reference to Goffman and Berger, discuss the representation of gender difference in advertising. How does advertising depict both men and women and place them within a social hierarchy? How does Goffman suggest that we “test” the reliability and strength of a particular gender stereotype?
Additional notes from Priya and Darija:
GOFFMAN
· “The task of the advertiser is to favorably dispose viewers to his product, his means , by and large, to show a sparkling version of the product in the context of glamorous events.” (pg 3, para 4/5)
· “A classy young lady is likely to be in the picture, adding her approval of the product and herself to its ambience, whether the product be floor maps, insecticides etc…” (pg 3, para 5)
· “The picture itself is designed to tell its little story without much textural assistance” (pg 3, para 6)
RELATIVE SIZE---important last part
· “In a social interaction between the sexes biological dimorphism underlies the probability that the males usual superiority of status over the female will be expressible in his greater girth and height (pg 28, para 2)
Feminine touch
· Woman used their hands as a way to outline “an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface” (pg 29, para 1)
· “This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates or holds” (pg 29, para 1
Function Ranking
· men are usually the more dominant and usually take that role in advertisements (pg. 33/34)
Licensed Withdrawal
· *ALL PARAGRAPH 1--- woman are removed psychologically from a situation therefore they depend on the protection of those around them *
· “Turning one`s gaze away from another’s can be seen as having the consequence of withdrawing from the current thrust of communication” (pg 62, para 1)
· more on this on page 63
height is reduced as well
QUESTION 3:
Cinema can be described as a signifying practice, a way of making meaning in which different codes interact in films or film genres in particular ways. Discuss this with reference to the films Birth of a Nation and Schindler’s List.Additional Notes from Priya and Darija:
- Schindler’s List:
o filmed in black and white
o ends in a positive uplifting note
o it satisfies two requirements:
§ a quest for authenticity, the story must have actually happened
§ the demand for a human story, one of determination, decency, courage and a final triumph of which in which good beats out evil
- Birth of a Nation
o 1915 blockbuster
o It has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Klu Klux Klan
o Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race, so what’s all the fuss about?
(PLEASE ADD MORE TO THIS!)